COVID : Panic And Disruption

Are we feeling calm before the storm or already edged by the storm? For the past few days, the entire nation is engulfed by the fear of the Virus. COVID causing Panicis making headlines every day and stories on social media updated every minute further scare us away. This pandemic has proved how fragile our public health network is. But there is a ray of hope i.e. right information and right knowledge will certainly protect us from man-made chaos. Dr. PV Ranganayakulu, Ph.D. in History of Medicine, dispels our recent doubts on the epidemiology of Coronavirus.

More than seven decades ago, Bertrand Russell, Nobel-laureate, mathematician, and philosopher from Britain, pointed out that humans first won the war with big animals like elephants and tigers and almost won the war with other small organisms like bacteria. But winning a war with viruses will remain difficult and elusive. Biologists still consider viruses as the first experiments of nature in creating life. This primitive genetic soup still influences advanced clusters of life. COVID is one of them.

New viruses keep appearing and spreading across the world because we are penetrating each and every ecosystem on all continents and oceans. Most viruses, till now limited to their habitat, are spreading to new habitats due to expanding human activity. Coronavirus, known to scientists for a long time, started troubling us recently. Right information and understanding is our insurance against ill health. The media in the subcontinent, unfortunately, do not employ specialists in various disciplines like medicine, science, social sciences, and technology to assess the news. Therefore, they are unable to convey proper information and are not able to save the people from confusion. There is a professional class of epidemiologists and virologists, whose knowledge is important in tackling any kind of epidemic like COVID. Instead, we have misconceptions that all doctors know the full story of COVID. No, they do not. Let's allow specialists to speak. On the one side the fragile public health machinery is breaking down and on the other, political leadership is not able to rudder the ship in a storm.

Epidemiologists and pathologists are trying to understand the behavior of Coronavirus and the pathology it creates. Physicians are also learning new lessons. Our one-year experience with COVID shows that 81% percent of the infected people do not exhibit symptoms or show mild to moderate symptoms. And most of them do not need treatment. If diagnosed they may take proper care so that others are not infected. Paradoxically, there is a deep human psyche that motivates humans to spread the disease to others because they feel secure if more are infected! It’s a social and psychological problem.

The remaining 19% of infected people do exhibit symptoms but all of them do not need hospitalization. Even at this scale, our health infrastructure cannot coop up with huge numbers. Irrational logistics, partiality on religious sentiments, misuse of earmarked funds are big problems. We are not listening to epidemiologists and medical virologists but read stories written by radiologists, pharmacologists, poets, etc. who are not an authority on COVID. The local governments are already exhausted.

Please remember these facts and save yourself from misinformation and viral spread.

1. Expensive antivirals may be of little use. It is decided by the physicians, so do not react to the news that medicines are black-marketed.
2. This virus may cause blood clots in ensuing weeks, therefore, consult your doctor to prescribe anticoagulants for some period.
3. In addition to the allopathy medicines, you may take few ayurvedic preparations like Vasarishta, Vasakantakari Lehyam, Agastya Haritaki Lehyam, Dasamula Haritaki, Yashtimadhu, Draksharishta, etc upon consulting a qualified Ayurveda physician.
4. Coronavirus survives longer in cooler rooms where the relative humidity is less than 50%. Think of increasing humidity in your homes during this summer.
5. Know the symptoms of COVID-19. The most common symptoms are fever, dry cough, and tiredness. Other less common symptoms are loss of taste or smell, aches, and pains, headache, sore throat, nasal congestion, red eyes, diarrhea, skin rash.
6. Micronutrients, such as vitamins D, C, and zinc, are critical for a well-functioning immune system and play a vital role in promoting health. Therefore, no harm in taking them.
7. Coronavirus does not spread through water, therefore, swimming pools do not spread the virus but human contact will.
8. Antibiotics cannot fight this virus.
9. Taking alcohol doesn’t give you protection against coronavirus.
10. Houseflies do not spread coronavirus.
11. The efficacy of herbs is not yet proved, so do not over depend on them.
12. Only 2% of infected people feel life risk. So do not feel panic.
13. Influenza A and B, bird flu, swine flu, and very few viruses can affect the lungs in humans. Coronavirus is similar to these viruses. All viruses are self-limiting in duration.
14. People with co-morbidities like obesity, diabetes, respiratory infections should be doubly careful.
15. Switch off WhatsApp and spend time on reliable news sources.
16. Remember, for dark-skinned people pulse oximeters do not give accurate results, it shows lesser than actual oxygen saturation.
17. Always use a mask to protect yourself and others.
18. When the health machinery fails you need to protect yourself using the right information and do not yield to miscommunications and magic therapies.
19. Nothing lasts forever, including Coronavirus. This is not the end of the world, be bold. Our panic and disruption kill us not the virus.